tips...016.
A REAL RECORDING SESSION WITH POWERTRACKS.(cont.).
ok..finally youve created a good basic midi drum track for the band
CEFE, and it sounds nice. but why dont we go further ??
now i'm going to cover some extra triks.
and how to make the drum track sound even better.
perhaps , for example u cant afford to spend like some people ive come across 500 buks on
all sorts of sample libraries and /or fancy midi keyboards
with great drum sounds in them or samplers etc etc.
there IS a solution. without spending any money.
mannings nuts i hear u say..lol.
well let me explain for those amongst us with no money.
and i'll show u i'm not nuts..lol.
within ptw is a whole suite of effects.
did u know u can use these effects to morph sounds into other sounds ??
these ptw effects combined with things that make a sound around your house
or apt can be used to create some pretty powerfull drum sounds .
IF...your willing to work at it.
so stuff that 500 buks u were thinking of spending on samples back in your bank account for now.
the whole idea is to use FOLEY techniques in ptw.
what is FOLEY ??
well most times u watch tv or a movie....
u are exposed to FOLEY techniques.
the rustle of trees or a eerie sound or footsteps,
and a million and one other sounds which are actually recorded in a foley
room in a studio. ie..recordists record the sounds in a recording studio.
then these are edited together at the right time points to match the movie images.
You can do the same to augment your drum (and other tracks.)
if you just cant afford sample libraries.
in summary , build your own personal custom audio sample library.
how do you do this ??
well in this case...start tapping things around the house
and listen how they sound. shake salt in a tin, bash a rubbermaid
lid, tap lightly a glass full of water (water glasses have been used on some big songs.),
try and make a drum sound with your mouth into a microphone,
bash the garbage can , in fact try lots of things in your house.
anything that makes a sound u find pleasing and record it.
just THINK , and EXPERIMENT.
when u find a usefull sound just record it into ptw and save it.
as a likkle audio file.
also there are various free royalty free samples u can find on the net.
or u might have bought a music mag that includes various samples.
alternatively say a buddy has some latin percussion , ask to borrow it,
so u can record the sounds.
gradually over time thus try n build up a sample library of interesting
sounds u can use not only on drum tracks but various other tracks.
be inventive also. for example i remember on the hit years ago called TELSTAR
i think it was they needed the sound of a take off.
so they recorded a loo flushing and reversed the sample.
a wonderfull example of not only inventiveness but the black art of audio engineering.
ecen if u CAN afford expensive sample libraries...they cant cover every sound.
its logically impossible.
thus think carefully about building your own custom foley
or samples library of various sounds.
for example once i gave my cat a treat , and stroked her so she purred.
and then recorded the purr into ptw , and used some triks in ptw's fx suite to morph
the purr into a totally different sound.

how does one go about morphing in ptw ??
a LOT is experimenting. all i can give u is clues cos every sound source is
different. but ive done a LOT useing ptw's.
EDIT>>>audio effects>>>pitch shift.
combined with weird things useing auto wah and if i remember also ring mod
and in fact most of the effects on the list.
a lot is experimentation and willingnes to spend the time
morphing different sounds. radical flangeing for example can do weird things.
it can be as simple as scrapeing two bits of sandpaper together,
and recording that to some of the other things ive mentioned earlier.
for example once i got an unusual usefull animal sound by combining
various source sounds together, and then morphing the combined one sound into something else.
there are also lots of free audio plug ins on the net for even more testing for variety.
and also mebe try ptw's built in tc helicon feature and see what u can get out of it.
all i would advise is spend some time seeing what sorts of interesting sounds u can get
out of common things u find around your residence as a start point.
sometimes the special sound might not sound great up front in the mix but down lower it might.
i just want the reader to think about low cost ways of creating unique sound samples.
in summary....be inventive.
(more tomorrow.)